CHAPTER THREE — Trust Me

Dear lord, I was in so much pain.

Everything, from the tip of my fingers to my toes hurt. I felt it deep in my veins. So the first thing I felt when I gained consciousness was pain.

The second thing was confusion.

It was so hard for me to open my eyes. For a second I didn’t know where I was. The ceiling above me wasn’t white and the scent around wasn’t sterile like a hospital. The ceiling was gold and the scent around was my perfume. I was in my bedroom. On my marital bed. The bed I shared with Malcolm.

I frowned weakly, trying to move, but the moment I did, I felt a stabbing pain in my ribs. My chest hurt so much I was in tears. My body felt… empty.

There were medical machines all around me. An IV drip was on my hand.

Why was I at home?

My throat was so dry that when I opened my mouth to say something, I couldn’t. I needed water. When I turned my head, I saw someone sitting beside me silently watching me, it was Rosie.

Her hair was tied in a bun, her white coat folded on her lap, and she was staring right at me. Her eyes were red, like she’d been crying for hours.

“R…Rosie?” I whispered.

The moment she heard me, she gasped dramatically. “Pat!”

Her hand covered her mouth as she immediately burst into tears. She leaned forward, grabbing my hand a little too rough causing me to flinch from the pain. “You’re awake. Oh God, I was so scared.”

“What… happened?”

Rosie sniffed, wiping her eyes. “You’ve been in a coma for almost a week. You collapsed at the party, Pat. Your doctor… he told us. We all know you have cancer.”

My eyes widened as I stared at her not even knowing what to say.

I later turned my head away, trying not to cry. I wasn’t ready for them to know, not like this. Not when I wasn’t in control.

I opened my mouth, about to say something when the bedroom door burst open.

“So it’s true!” My mother’s screaming rang out as she pointed at me angrily, looking like she wanted to swallow me alive. My father was right behind her but he couldn’t even meet me in the eyes.

“You really thought you could hide something like this from us? Are you insane?! How could you do this to your family?”

“Mom, please…” Rosie tried to calm her down, but she raised her hand to shut her up.

“Don’t interrupt me, Rosie.” She turned to me, glaring. “Do you know how embarrassing it was for you to faint like that in front of all those people! In front of Malcolm’s business partners! Everyone was talking about it! If you were sick, why didn’t you say something instead of making a scene?”

“I…I wanted to tell you but…” I was crying. “I didn’t want anyone to worry.”

“Oh, save your pity party for someone else!” She scoffed.“You’ve always wanted attention, Patricia. Always pretending to be strong so people would praise you. Well, congratulations, you got everyone’s attention this time.”

“Enough,” my father said, turning to look at me coldly. “What matters now is fixing this before it affects the company’s image. Malcolm’s been doing his best to control the rumors and turn this situation around. Just lay low and don’t call attention to yourself.”

I winced trying to sit up as my eyes blurred. It was getting hard and harder to breathe and see by the second. So painful that I started to think the pain would kill me first before the cancer did.

I looked at both of them, my chest tightening as I coughed, tasting blood in my mouth. “Can you… please take me to the hospital?”

Rosie placed a hand on mine again. “You don’t need to go anywhere, Pat. I’m a doctor, remember? You’re safer here, away from the stress. I’ll take care of you.”

My mother crossed her arms. “Exactly. No reporters to cause issues for the family. Just be grateful to your sister and get better quietly.”

I stared at Rosie, my eyes blurring. I started having a bad feeling at the back of my mind.

“Rosie, you don’t understand, I need real treatment. The hospital—”

Rosie smiled, leaning forward to push a strand of hair from my face with her gentle fingers. “Trust me, Pat. I’ll make you better. I promise.”

Her words were warm and comforting, but for some reason, a chill ran down my spine.

I turned to my parents, hoping for at least one of them to see that this was not normal. “Please,” I whispered, “I need to go to a hospital. I need good doctors that understand my—”

But the moment I saw their faces, I knew.

They’d already made the decision without me.

“Don’t make things difficult for your sister,” my father said. “She took a leave from work to help you. Be grateful, Patricia.”

Be grateful, be grateful…

My parents would always tell me to be grateful to Rosie, to them and Malcolm. I’d never really been able to understand what that means.

But they didn’t care, after saying all they had to say, they turned and walked out of the room.

Nobody asked how I was feeling.

Nobody asked if it hurt a lot.

Rosie turned to me with a soft smile. “You’ll feel better soon,” she kept repeating as she reached for a syringe.

My heart started pounding. “What… what is that?”

“Just something to help you rest.” She assured me. “Trust me big sis” she slapped the needle in my IV line.

I suddenly felt a cold heaviness spread through my veins.

The room began to spin.

I tried to say her name, to tell her I didn’t want to sleep, but my tongue felt heavy. It became very hard to see and the world slowly started to fade around me.

And as I closed my eyes, a single tear rolled down my cheek.

~~~~

I’d reached a place between life and death where I was awake, but unable to move.

My eyes wouldn’t open but I couldn’t even speak. It was like being trapped inside my own body, screaming silently while no one could hear me.

But I felt everything. Every ache, every pain, every breath I took that felt like it was going to be my last.

If this wasn’t hell, I didn’t know what was.

The world around me was pitch-black, the only sound I could hear was from the monitor beside my bed.

It was the only thing reminding me that I was still alive.

Well, until I heard his voice.

The familiar voice that once made me excited. The voice of the man who told me he couldn’t live without me.

Malcolm Dawson, my husband.

The same man who hadn’t visited me once since the night I fainted.

I heard him open our bedroom door and drop his keys loudly on my dressing table.

“Yes baby girl, I can’t wait to see you too. You don’t know how much I missed you.”

Every part of my body froze.

He scoffed. “Why on earth would I come and visit her? am I foolish? I just came home to quickly change, you know I’ve been very busy with the company but everything is already working according to plan. The board already knows Patricia’s sick. It’s only a matter of time before they vote her out as CEO. They’re already questioning her ability to run Dawson Industries.”

He chuckled.

“Once that’s done, I’ll take over as acting head and in just a matter of weeks, I’ll be CEO, then I can proudly show you off. We’ll finally be able to be together. God, my love you have no idea how happy I am, I can not wait for her to make it easy on both of us and die already.”

Every word that came out of his mouth was like a knife digging right into my heart. I wanted to open my mouth and scream! Ask him how he could do this to me?!

The person on the other end said something I couldn’t hear. Then Malcolm laughed. “I know, baby. I know. It’s hard pretending to care in front of so many cameras, everyone is calling me the Saint husband. What a joke! But soon I won’t have to. When she dies, I’ll finally be free. Even though the Sterling deal fell through, I’d still have enough power to make sure we’re set for the rest of our lives. Just you and me, running everything together. Ten years in the making darling.”

My hand held the sheets tight, I could hear a loud ringing in my ear.

Ten years!!!

I met Malcolm Ten years ago and I loved him since the moment I met him. I turned my whole world to revolve around him. So are you telling me that ever since the beginning it was a lie? when he said he loved me! when he said he would only choose me over and over again.

Ten years in the making?

My eyes widened in pure horror. oh God…